NWS Daily Climatology Data: 1976 (SNF)

Summary:

Weather data were collected by the National Weather Service in International Falls, Minnesota. International Falls is about 80 miles from the SNF, but the weather data is representative of the area. Total solar insolation measurements were made at Fall Lake Dam in Winton, Minnesota, by Prof. Donald Baker of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. Insolation values were measured using a Yellow Springs solar cell calibrated against an Eppley Pyranometer.

1. Data Set Overview:

Data Set Identification:

NWS Daily Climatology Data: 1976 (SNF).

Data Set Introduction:

Weather data were collected by the National Weather Service in International Falls, Minnesota. International Falls is about 80 miles from the SNF, but the weather data are representative of the area. Total solar insolation measurements were made at Fall Lake Dam in Winton, Minnesota, by Prof. Donald Baker of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. Insolation values were measured using a Yellow Springs solar cell calibrated against an Eppley Pyranometer.

Objective/Purpose:

Not available.

Summary of Parameters:

Discussion:

Daily weather data for the years 1972 through 1990 are stored in a collection of data sets with each data set containing one year's data, plus a data set including the entire data collection. The data set names are in the form:

For presentation in this document, some padding blanks may have been eliminated between columns in the Sample Data Record. Due to the many fields in this data file, these columns will wrap while viewing. The actual data files, however, are column delimited with an adequate record length to prevent wrapping. See the Data Format Section for conventions used for missing data values in the data file.

8. Data Organization:

Data are sorted by observation date (obs_datc) and location (location). Key fields in each record are location and obs_datc.

Data Granularity:

Each data set consists of a single ASCII file containing climatology data for each location for an entire year, except in the case of "NWS Daily Climatology Data: 1972-1990" which contains the climatology data for the entire period 1972-1990.

A general description of data granularity as it applies to the IMS appears in the EOSDIS Glossary.

Data Format:

The data files associated with this data set consist of numeric and character fields of varying lengths aligned in columns. The first row of each data file contains the 8 character SAS variable name that links to the data format definition file. Character fields are enclosed in double quotes and numeric fields are listed without quotes.

Missing data values can be of two varieties:

Values that were identified as missing in the original data files. Missing numeric values of this type are identified in these data as -999.

Those holes that were created as a result of combining files that contained a slightly different variable set. Missing values of this type are identified in these data files as empty double quotes for character fields and a single period, '.' for numeric fields.

9. Data Manipulations:

Not available.

10. Errors:

Sources of Error:

Not available.

Quality Assessment:

Data Validation by Source:

Not available.

Confidence Level/Accuracy Judgment:

Not available.

Measurement Error for Parameters:

Not available.

Additional Quality Assessments:

Not available.

Data Verification by Data Center:

The Superior National Forest data were received from the Goddard Space Flight Center in three media:

As data dumps from the original Oracle SNF database maintained by GSFC, transferred electronically from the GSFC system to the ORNL system;

As ASCII files that mirrored the tables published in the Tech Memo; and

As hard copy (Tech Memo).

Data from both electronic sources were input into SAS by ORNL DAAC data management staff and compared using computer code developed to process the SNF data. In many cases, the data values from both sources were found to be identical. In some cases, however, differences were identified and the providers of the data were consulted to resolve inconsistencies.

Additionally, some variable columns were available in one source, but not the other for various reasons. For example, some calculated variables/columns were provided in the ASCII files (reflecting the Tech Memo tables) that were not stored in the Oracle database for purposes of space conservation.

For similar reasons, coded values were used for many of the site and species identifier variables. A separate reference table was provided to link the coded variable with its definition (e.g., the SPECIES_REF file and the SITE_REF file).

The database produced by the ORNL DAAC is a hybrid product that is a composite of data and information extracted from all three source media. In data sets where coded variables were included, the code definition variables have been added to improve usability of the data set as a stand-alone product.

Therefore the ASCII files that are available through the ORNL DAAC on-line search and order systems are output from a data set that is a product of the essential core of numeric data provided by the data source (GSFC), augmented with additional descriptive information provided by GSFC and reorganized by the ORNL DAAC into a data structure consistent with other similar data sets maintained by the ORNL DAAC.